I was browsing through iTunes the other day and came across a mention of Matthew Sweet’s 1995 album 100% Fun, which happened to be one of the first CDs I bought as a teenager. To my frustration, I no longer seemed to have the album anywhere, but I really wanted to hear it again, so I broke down and bought the digital copy after a few days of vacillating. It’s so great!
The “power pop” sound of this album didn’t really fit in with the alterna-grunge vibe of the mid-’90s, and that might be one reason that I didn’t give it the credit it deserved at the time, and it didn’t make the cut of CDs to take with me when I went to college a few years later. But the classic, super-catchy tunes of 100% Fun are even better than I remember as I listen to them 13 years later, even though I’m finding again that this album doesn’t really fit in with the music that fills most of my life (this time, indies, experimental rock, folk, and other oddities). The first track, “Sick of Myself,” has quickly become a rediscovered favorite, for its bittersweet lyrics over a memorable melody.
It makes me a little sad to think about how Matthew Sweet has never became a huge name, even though his sound is perfectly suited for mainstream mega-hits. At the same time, there’s no way that he’ll ever go away. (And I hear that “Girlfriend,” from his earlier breakout album, is on Guitar Hero II, so there’s that.)
oh my gosh! i moved this summer for the eleventy billionth time and as i was packing i found that same cd in the bottom on my highboy. no cd cover, just the naked cd. i popped it in and was right back in the mid nineties in my old apartment in vancouver living with my sister crying about some random boy and drinking gin from the bombaby blue bottle. *sigh. i still love that album.
OMG! I loved Matthew Sweet as a teenager. I had a big giant poster of him on my wall. I bet my CD is still at my parents’ house somewhere, it too not having made the cut of CDs to take to college. I’ll have to look for it when I’m there for Xmas.
Oh I adore Matthew Sweet – I know he recently played in Boston but I missed out. He is so great & 100% is an album that brings a smile to my face.
I need to go break that cd out again :)
How neat to inspire a few people to give this album a listen! I really wonder how much I would like it if I were hearing it for the first time right now, but as nostalgic listening, it doesn’t get much better.
ooo, flashback! i saw matthew sweet at a dinky club in allentown with my first boyfriend… it was great! not the boyfriend, but the music… ;)
Wow! I only heard of him last year on Guitar Hero!